Prescription hurting
I wonder who it is that prescribes the prescribed burns. Surely it is not anyone with knowledge of what they do to people's health through breathing in the smoke.
For healthy people, it is a problem. For people who have lung-related illnesses, it is a disaster and means it is dangerous to be outside when these burns are happening ... which lately seems to be a daily occurrence.
Surely there is a more humane way to manage forests rather than polluting the air we all breathe. While Arkansas bills itself as "the natural state," there is nothing natural about breathing polluted air. It looks like Beijing daily in Northwest Arkansas, and the air leaves a metallic taste in your mouth.
I would hope a better way of forest management could be instituted.
PAULA K. KOCH
Holiday Island
Pharmaceutical TV
I was sitting comfortably in my easy chair, watching television, when a sudden wave of hypochondria overcame me. This feeling that I had some serious health problem was likely generated by a constant parade of pharmaceutical commercials on television. It isn't bad enough that a 30-minute television program has diminished in time due to many commercials, but now TV viewers have to endure these seemingly endless pharmaceutical commercials.
Back on May 9, 1961, Mr. Newton Minow, who was the head of the Federal Communications Commission, called television a "vast wasteland." I wonder what he would think of TV in the present day. Perhaps it now has become a vast drugstore.
I was under the impression that if one feels he has a health problem, he sees his physician to have it diagnosed, and then treatment, perhaps a prescription, is provided. These pharmaceutical commercials seem to want the patient to do the diagnosis. I have to wonder if the pharmaceutical companies are trying to gain some sympathy from the viewers by showing what they have developed and perhaps ease the pressure of reducing the prices of their pharmaceuticals.
I would offer a word to the pharmaceutical companies on their commercials. Make them more user-friendly by eliminating technical jargon. I am sure the TV networks love the commercial funding that comes their way, but I hardly look at these commercials as informative.
Perhaps do as I do, hit the mute button.
GEORGE WILKEN
Little Rock
Suggestions for paper
Your newspaper is a valuable addition to our household for a source of information. But beyond the obituaries--to make sure we haven't lost any more of our friends--and the editorial page, we have grown weary of most every headline containing the president's name, the "T" word.
The editors could take a hint from USA Today and conclude every front-page story on the front page, thereby preventing the third page from immersing in my morning coffee. Even more helpful would be to summarize his every act in a few words, e.g., "President T's immigration policy stalled," without quoting every pro and con reaction from across the land.
The continued agonizing of participants of the election could well take a key from their high school/junior high games of any competition: The winning coach is honored in an unsuspecting moment when he receives a tub full of Gatorade in ice, brushes it off and goes about celebrating his victory with his team. The loser congratulates the winner, albeit sometimes grudgingly, tucks his tail and proceeds to the locker room ... no protest marches on the court/field, no burning of cars or destroying liquor stores, hiring of counselors for "distraught" students--just get on the bus and go home. Even more exemplary is the end of a basketball game at the college level--players and coaches form a line to congratulate the winners, hug each other, and again, no torching of cars, protests, etc. Granted, the current political climate of changing the social philosophy is like putting our car in reverse while heading forward at 70 mph, but the transmission and tires can be replaced and we may well proceed on a new path by the will of the people.
When will we learn?
ELDON JANZEN
Fayetteville
How insurance works
Was listening to Fox News Sunday when Karl Rove stated that Obamacare was being so unfair to younger people by making them subsidize our older, sicker population. Someone has already written about Paul Ryan's using charts showing how younger people are paying to subsidize a small group of sick people.
I find it astonishing and frightening that we have people crafting a health-care plan for America without having even a basic concept of how insurance works. I wonder if they have ever been in an employer-sponsored health care plan. In this plan did anyone pick out the kind of coverage they wanted? No. In the plan I am covered under, there are three options--high, middle and standard coverage. In each option everyone has the same coverage and pays the same payment in that option. The only difference is the amount of co-pays and deductibles.
Insurance is a risk pool. Not everyone will be sick at the same time. That is what brings down the price of insurance. All of the older (maybe even sicker) people in the plan paid to subsidize the older and maybe sicker people when they were young. Of course, no one has to take out a plan, but the more who do, the lower everyone's payment will be. If insurance didn't work this way, we would just be paying for what we consume, and no one could do this, except maybe our legislators.
A rule in insurance is the less money you have, the more insurance you need. A lot of young and older people do not have large amounts of money in the bank. If you do, you can afford the larger deductibles and co-pays.
The Affordable Care Act was attempting to achieve this goal. Cost-savings estimates were based on everyone having insurance, and since they did not, they could not be achieved. In a democracy it is hard to force people to do something even if it is for their own good.
SALLY J. MAYS
Roland
Prepare the bat signal
Where is Batman when you need him? The Joker's in the White House and we don't have anyone to expel him. Our legislators, FBI, or Justice Department don't have enough guts to stand up to him, so I guess we have at least four more years of lunatic behavior.
We need someone who has some idea of what the president's duties are, and it's not staying up all night watching cable news just to hear what everyone is saying about you. This is no joking matter; we're going to lose all the respect we built up over the last 70 years because you can't believe anything that comes out of this guy's mouth.
Somebody, please help. This is not a corporation to take over. It's our country.
VIC JOHNSON
Mount Ida
Editorial on 03/24/2017